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DOB Equity has invested in Irrisol Engineering, a Ugandan water infrastructure company providing water to rural and peri-urban communities through solar-powered water systems.
Founded in 2017 by water and irrigation engineer Joash Bwambale, Irrisol designs, builds and operates solar-powered water mini-grids across Western Uganda. The systems deliver water directly to households and community taps, combining solar-powered pumps with consumption-based billing and mobile-money payments to make access to water more reliable and affordable.
Across Uganda, access to safe and reliable water remains a significant challenge, particularly in rural communities. Many households continue to rely on distant water sources. At the same time, many existing rural water systems struggle with long-term functionality due to inadequate maintenance, poor infrastructure design and limited sustainable financing models.
Cikü Mugambi, investment director at DOB Equity, said: “Joash is exactly the type of founder we back: a local entrepreneur solving a problem he lived himself. Balancing commercial returns with genuine impact is never easy, but Joash has cracked this with water minigrids and standalone systems embedded directly in rural communities, paired with pay-as-you-go plans that align payments with household incomes and make clean water genuinely accessible. More than 400 million Africans still lack access to safe drinking water, and we’re proud to support Joash with capital and hands-on partnership as he takes this model across Uganda and beyond.”
Bwambale added: “I believe access to reliable water should not depend on where someone lives or how much they earn. Irrisol’s journey has been about proving that sustainable, financially viable rural water systems are possible and that communities can be served with dignity while building infrastructure that lasts. Partnering with DOB Equity gives us the capital, expertise and long-term partnership we need to replicate our model in more communities across Uganda. Together, we have an opportunity to demonstrate that rural water infrastructure can be both an essential public service and a sustainable enterprise, ultimately bringing reliable, affordable water to millions more people.”
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